3 comments:

Great blog and thanks for posting this! I think there should be some middle ground for responsible people to train and certify their own dogs. Organizations like Canine Companions are great, but they are businesses which produce an expensive (if excellent) 'product' which is out of reach of many. When I wanted to legitimately train and certify my dog, I was chagrined to learn there were very few options for me. I ended up working with Lydia Kelley at Top Dog in Arizona culminating in four intense days of temperament and task testing, which my dog passed with flying colors. Still, after flying from CA to AZ and going through the training, I have no 'official' certification, just a flimsy ID I could have created on my home PC. Why? Because there is no official cert in the US. Top Dog/ADI was as close as I could get. I just hope that if rules are tightened, handler trained service dogs are allowed to prove their abilities alongside puppy training programs like Canine Companions.

Pet Health & Safety

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